Ben Lowe
M.S. Student, Interdisciplinary Ecology Program
2016-17 FLAS Fellow, Center for African Studies
There is considerable knowledge today about the unprecedented impacts we are having on the earth, its ecosystems, and the critical goods and services they provide. Less understood are the effects these growing pressures have on human societies. In order to increase resiliency and develop appropriate adaptation and conservation strategies, especially among more vulnerable communities, we need to better understand the human dimensions of environmental change. Towards this end, Ben Lowe’s research is focused on Lake Tanganyika in East Africa, where he studies how fishers respond to climate-driven declines in fishery productivity, the key factors influencing their adaptations/mal-adaptations, and the implications of these changes for the broader social-ecological system. As a Masters student in the Interdisciplinary Ecology program (advised by Dr. Susan Jacobson in WEC), Lowe is very grateful to have received a 2016-2017 FLAS Fellowship to study Swahili. Developing Swahili language skills is a critical asset for accomplishing his research, which involves conducting surveys and interviews with Swahili speaking fishery stakeholders. The results of this research will contribute to our understanding of how resource users respond to changes in their natural resource base—on Lake Tanganyika and beyond—and will be critical for informing management efforts to improve people’s livelihoods while protecting one of the most unique and biodiverse freshwater ecosystems in the world.